Splash! You are in Costa Rica's Blue Eco Blog. Echoing Eco for Oceans and Waters. Giving voice to dolphins and whales, their waves and their waters, and all denizens of the deep. News they think you should use. Dive in.

The blue-water pelagic ecosystem offshore of southwestern Costa
Rica’s Isla del Caño Biological Reserve and Corcovado National Park took
serious one-two punches during the past few months, and it remains to
be seen whether things will ever return to conditions of the past. The
area around, not inside, the two protected areas is probably Costa
Rica’s most critical dolphin and whale breeding and feeding waters. But
the whales are gone, and the dolphins have changed. The fishing has been
off, and boats are headed elsewhere to find fish.

The first few months of the year shaped up to be one of the
best seasons for marine life in Costa Rican waters in recent memory. The
cool currents of La Niña stoked a profusion of big pelagic species like
dolphins, whales, tuna, turtles and giant mantas. Divers and snorkelers
from the Southern Zone reported more giant mantas seen at Caño Island
in February and March than in the past 15 years put together. Flights
and boats searching for marine life in the area were finding dolphin
superpods, groups of dolphins numbering in the hundreds to thousands,
all over the area. There were many mating and birthing humpback whales, a
large pod of false killer whales, orcas, fin whales and even three blue
whales, including a baby, feeding on giant bait balls of small fish
brought up from the depths during the normal strong upwelling at this
time of year. There were uncountable hectares of turtles, tuna and
billfish. There were even a few big sharks.

Then, a giant foreign
ship showed up and began drilling deep holes in the ocean floor not far
from Caño Island, in the name of scientific research. Within a day, the
whales were gone. Search time for dolphins from a plane went from a half
hour or less to two hours or more. Most dolphin superpods broke into
smaller groups and headed north toward offshore Quepos. Others broke
into smaller groups and moved inshore, closer to the coast. Dolphins
that stayed in the area developed a strange skin rash.

The spewing
ship kept at it for a month. Great areas of waters turned from marine
blue to metallic brown and green. The day after the ship left, a new one
showed up towing many kilometers of giant air guns blasting extremely
loud sounds repetitively. A week later they were still at it. Drake Bay
ecotourism and sportfishing boats foolish enough to still be looking in
their favorite hot spots were told to leave the area by burly men on a
yacht out of Quepos. Scuba divers at Caño Island could hear the giant
booms of the guns during their dives.

No environmental impact
study was done for the area. No dolphin and whale observers were onboard
to look out for cetacean safety. There were no Costa Ricans onboard
until someone noticed. Many questions were never answered. No notice was
given to area residents of what was going to happen.

Since the
drilling, no whales have been reported in the area – the longest period
without whale sightings that anglers and guides in Drake Bay can
remember. No large dolphin superpods have been seen. The fishing is bad.
No wonder so few tourists seem to want to visit the area right now.

This
serious lack of ocean oversight has left locals wondering what is next.
There are reports of making a permanent drilling riser here and of
laying an undersea cable from the mainland to Caño Island and then
offshore to the rig.

Let’s hope an environmental impact study is
involved and that locals dependent on the area’s marine life are given
some notice so they can find new jobs. Because what’s next could be the
knockout punch for a good chunk of Costa Rica’s famous marine life:
whales, dolphins, turtles – and fishers and divers.

Email costacetacea@gmail.com with contributions to The Big Blue, or check out www.costacetacea.com for more information.

The
same false killer whales tribe that has been visiting the Osa coast
north of Corcovado to Drake Bay for many years is back again in action.
These giant dolphins are better called Pseudorca, their genus in science
speak, because there is nothing false about them. They showed up here near Drake Bay yesterday. Passing through or here to hunt and play? Stay tuned.

The voice of the vast majority of ocean users is heard and they are not catch and release billfishers.

Fishers should always have access to most of the worlds oceans, not
just for sport but to eat! But the world does need some places in the
ocean to be free of nets and lines. Catching and releasing endangered billfish is not sport fishing and not as many people do it as some would have you think.

The crazy well funded, massivly sponsered, internationally super influencial Billfish Foundation took a big wave over the bow when the Prime Minister of Australia,
backed by the people of one of the most ocean savy nations on earth,
said our oceans are for a lot more than just catch and release
billfishing. The Billfish Foundation has waged a campaign against marine
protected areas, encouraging members to come out and help stop creation
of marine protected areas

Latin America's greatest ocean hero, Laura Chinchilla, granted future
Costa Ricans a much better chance of sustainably utilizing our Oceans
into the future. The sad free for all of too powerful special interests
will now be controlled with vision directed to the people and the
future by a new Vice Minister of Aguas and Mares. Wow! No thats how
you do it! Seems now the voices of all groups of ocean users, not just
the most connected screaming special interests, will have a say. Now is
time for Costa Ricans to speak up about what they know about our
oceans, and help conserve it. Have you heard about the largest dolphin
pod in the world, the spinner dolphins of the Osa peninsula and Cano
Island? Aaaa, happens to be they need a park! They live near to famous
protected areas Corcovado National Park and Cano Island Biological
Reserve, BUT, they live in waters attacked by nets and lines. This Park
or protected area, needs to be south and west of Cano Island to at
least a distance of 30 nautical miles to help these spinners. NOT just 8
miles from the island as some are saying! 8 miles is not enough to
protect the biggest dolphin pod in the world and Golfito and Puerto
Jimenez need to make a lot money in the long run from conserving these
dolphins, not killing them for short term collapsing profits.

FADs popular with marine life in Costa Rica’s oceans

Divers check out a floating piece of tree, and the schools of fish drawn to it, off southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.

Those who ply the sea know floating things attract or
aggregate fish. Fish aggregating devices, known as FADs, are often
thought of as manmade objects, but that is not always the case.

Shawn Larkin

For most of history, the fad in FADs was natural, in the form
of forest products: a branch or a tree falls into a river and makes its
way to the sea. Any Tico captain knows to be ever watchful for floating
branches and tree trunks that can damage a prop or hull, especially
during the high runoff of rainy season, even when far offshore. But jump
in with a piece of tree in the sea and you may be shocked.

Vast
clouds of marine life will surround floating things that are smaller
than you. When you jump in, all the life will often surround you like
moths to a flame. Sometimes people jump right back in the boat when they
realize there is no reef to dive down to. But you are the reef, and
there may be so many fish surrounding you that you cannot see someone
right next to you.

FADs offshore of southwestern Costa Rica’s Osa
Peninsula often draw diver favorites like silky sharks and manta rays,
two species recently declared endangered. Super- and megapods of
dolphins become natural FADs, and they check out other FADs.

Why
do many whales and dolphins, more than 300 species of fish like sharks,
rays and billfish, all sea turtle species and countless crustaceans,
seaweeds, invertebrates and other marine life hang out at natural and
manmade FADs? Structure, protection, food and social opportunities seem
to be the big attractions. Life like seaweed and barnacles quickly
starts growing on almost all floating things. Other life shows up to eat
what’s there. Still others may come for a bit of shade or a place to
hide. Then come bigger things, and then even bigger things. A lot of
marine life seems programmed with the instinct to check out FADs,
probably because of the good chances to find lunch or a mate, or to not
be eaten.

So where you have FADs, you have a lot of marine life.
The longer the FAD is in the water, the more life it accumulates. Places
with a lot of rivers and forests produce many natural FADs year-round,
but mostly during rainy season and severe weather. The rivers of Costa
Rica run full of FADs that will later drift many kilometers out to sea
and grow their own clouds of marine life.

Natural FADs probably
increase Costa Rica’s marine biodiversity and bioproductivity more than
most people realize. Other places that are not so blessed with natural
FADs make their own for local artisan and sport fishers and divers.
Hawaii put in a system of FADs offshore of the islands in the 1970s.
Today, each one of these many manmade FADs produces thousands of
kilograms of fish a year with no by-catch, as well as recreation for
local communities.

The purse seine commercial fishing industry
also deploys manmade FADs, but on a massive scale over the entire
Pacific. After the FADs grow their clouds of life, the ships put it all
in a net. If they find a natural FAD, they do the same thing. This has a
rather different outcome than the Hawaiian method.

The Hawaiian
way kills no marine life other than food fish, and the local communities
get the food and money the FAD generates. The Costa Rican purse seine
netters’ way destroys the entire marine chain of life around the FAD,
and no money or food goes to local Costa Ricans.

You need to watch this video. Here offshore of the Osa super and megapods of dolphins are massive fish attracting devices or FADs. Under the dolphins swim heaps of other marine life. Countless dolphins, whales, sharks, billfish, turtles and more is slaughtered in Costa Rica everyday and it seems our well funded non profits DO NOTHING TO SPREAD AWARNESS OR STOP THIS UNBELIEVABLE MARINE LIFE SLAUGHTER. Is is corruption? Laziness? Fear? Ignorace? Who knows? But thank you Greenpeace for actually getting wet for marine conservation and not just trying to keep your socks dry in a nice office in the city.

Pretty big
chunks of burning metal will likely fall from the sky within twenty four hours. Thinking is that the most likely place to be hit
is the oceans! We have no idea what the odds are of the satellite
hitting a dolphin. Maybe no one would ever even find out.

However, we do
know the odds are pretty good that the tuna fleet will be killing
multiple dolphins today, as they do most days.

To bad falling
satallites are the least of Costa Rican dolphin problems.